My grandfather, Stephen Dufort, was a farmer in rural Haiti. He planted and cultivated produce, but the real money was in the Creole pigs — black swines that basically took care of themselves. Potato, yam, and name skins? Gobbled right up. Avocados? They would happily eat even the pit. Had food that was going to waste? No, you didn’t. When the pigs weren’t being the best garbage disposals they were being great soil aerators, their snouts rooting around the soil restored nutrients and made gardening more fruitful.
The pigs shared a symbiotic relationship with the land and the people. They were currency in the Haitian countryside. Better yet, they were a savings and checking account all wrapped up in a cute little package. A pig could send your kid to school or pay for a trip to the doctor. Hungry? A pig could serve as a meal or the means to buy your groceries. Unless your pigs were stolen, the chances of you running out were slim to none. After all, a pig could have as many as twelve piglets in a single year.
This was all a part of the Lakou (rural) system that operated independently of the urban Haitian government. Community, family, and farming was at the center of life for moun andeyo (outsiders). .
While rich in community and family, most moun andeyo were cash poor. Grandpa, or Daddy Phen, described life as being “pa twò dous” or “not so sweet.” He sold his cow for passage across the Atlantic, leaving on January 10, 1979 and reaching Nassau on February 1, 1979.
African Swine Fever (ASF), a hyper-contagious and lethal disease that affects all pigs, made its way to Haiti while my grandpa was paving the way for my grandmother and their seven children. While non-lethal to humans, concerns that ASF would affect the North American pork industry when it spread from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.
In order to contain ASF, Canada, the United States, and Mexico met with the Haitian government, ruled by “president for life” Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, and offered a solution:
PEPPADEP.
P - Programme pour de la africaine et pour le développement de l'élevage E - l’éradication de la
P - Peste
P - Porcine
A - Africaine et pour le
D - Développement
E - l'élevage
P - porcin
Program to Eradicate African Swine Fever and to Develop Pig Raising.
Every.
Single.
Pig.
Killed.
No. Exceptions.
See the problem? When your economy is based on pig raising, what happens when they are all exterminated?
Were the farmers compensated? They sure were.
$40 for a big pig.
$20 for a medium pig.
$5 for a piglet.
Oh, and that last part of the solution, “to develop pig raising”, that never happened. But why would it?
1) The Creole Pigs were exterminated.
2) ASF was no longer a threat to the North American pork industry.
3) The Haitian people, more specifically, moun andeyo, were put in their place.
And to that, all I can do is scoff, shake my head, and say
pigs.
Special thanks to:
Stephen Dufort
Meprisia Dufort
Lyne Dufort
Level Dufort
Ernest Dufort
Lumane Joseph
Olandieu Joseph
Without you, this project wouldn’t exist.
The pigs shared a symbiotic relationship with the land and the people. They were currency in the Haitian countryside. Better yet, they were a savings and checking account all wrapped up in a cute little package. A pig could send your kid to school or pay for a trip to the doctor. Hungry? A pig could serve as a meal or the means to buy your groceries. Unless your pigs were stolen, the chances of you running out were slim to none. After all, a pig could have as many as twelve piglets in a single year.
This was all a part of the Lakou (rural) system that operated independently of the urban Haitian government. Community, family, and farming was at the center of life for moun andeyo (outsiders). .
While rich in community and family, most moun andeyo were cash poor. Grandpa, or Daddy Phen, described life as being “pa twò dous” or “not so sweet.” He sold his cow for passage across the Atlantic, leaving on January 10, 1979 and reaching Nassau on February 1, 1979.
African Swine Fever (ASF), a hyper-contagious and lethal disease that affects all pigs, made its way to Haiti while my grandpa was paving the way for my grandmother and their seven children. While non-lethal to humans, concerns that ASF would affect the North American pork industry when it spread from the Dominican Republic to Haiti.
In order to contain ASF, Canada, the United States, and Mexico met with the Haitian government, ruled by “president for life” Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, and offered a solution:
PEPPADEP.
P - Programme pour de la africaine et pour le développement de l'élevage E - l’éradication de la
P - Peste
P - Porcine
A - Africaine et pour le
D - Développement
E - l'élevage
P - porcin
Program to Eradicate African Swine Fever and to Develop Pig Raising.
Every.
Single.
Pig.
Killed.
No. Exceptions.
See the problem? When your economy is based on pig raising, what happens when they are all exterminated?
Were the farmers compensated? They sure were.
$40 for a big pig.
$20 for a medium pig.
$5 for a piglet.
Oh, and that last part of the solution, “to develop pig raising”, that never happened. But why would it?
1) The Creole Pigs were exterminated.
2) ASF was no longer a threat to the North American pork industry.
3) The Haitian people, more specifically, moun andeyo, were put in their place.
And to that, all I can do is scoff, shake my head, and say
pigs.
Special thanks to:
Stephen Dufort
Meprisia Dufort
Lyne Dufort
Level Dufort
Ernest Dufort
Lumane Joseph
Olandieu Joseph
Without you, this project wouldn’t exist.